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In last week’s meditation, we talked about how God respects our boundaries even when we do not and remains true to God’s character even when in our limited understanding we expect God to behave otherwise. God knocks at the door of the hurting, hidden places within us and waits patiently and faithfully until we are truly ready to open the door.
As You Open
I was praying with Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians recently and quite unexpectedly found my attention drawn again to the metaphor of the door:
I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. – Ephesians 3:16-17, The Message
This time, I noticed, the metaphor is not conditional as in Revelation (“If anyone hears my voice and opens the door…”) but instead assumes that the door is already being opened and that God is already being invited in (“…as you open the door and invite him in.”). Again there is the promise that God will indeed come in, but this time, the waiting is over. God’s patience has paid off. The door is being opened, and the invitation is being extended.
Intention is Enough
I realized that just my sincere intention, just my demonstrated willingness to become willing, was in itself a beginning to open the door. At the very least, the door was unlocked, and my hand was on the handle.
Like the labyrinth walk, each step we take toward God is an opening of the door, a turning of the handle, an unlocking. Our intention is enough. Our movement in the direction of God, however small and halting, is enough to answer the knock and begin to open the door.
Reach Out
God is always saying to us, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.” My prayer today is that we may hear God’s voice of love and set our intention and our orientation toward the door, trusting that even our smallest and most uncertain response is enough to begin to open the door and say, “Come on in.”
The fruit is hanging on the branch, my fellow pilgrims, ripe and ready for the taking. Reach out with me, even just a little, toward the healing and wholeness that is available to us all. That little bit is all it takes to begin to receive all that God has for us–that fullness of joy we have been promised!